sql - COUNT(*) Includes Null Values?

Question

MSDN documentation states:

COUNT(*) returns the number of items in a group. This includes NULL values and duplicates.

How can you have a null value in a group? Can anyone explain the point they're trying to make?

Answer 1

If you have this table

Table1:

 Field1    Field2    Field3
 ---------------------------
   1         1         1
  NULL      NULL      NULL
   2         2        NULL
   1         3         1

Then

 SELECT COUNT(*), COUNT(Field1), COUNT(Field2), COUNT(DISTINCT Field3)
 FROM Table1

Output Is:

 COUNT(*) = 4; -- count all rows, even null/duplicates

 -- count only rows without null values on that field
 COUNT(Field1) = COUNT(Field2) = 3

 COUNT(Field3) = 2 
 COUNT(DISTINCT Field3) = 1 -- Ignore duplicates